Online Dating

JDate.com received a complete site makeover this month that includes both the front end of the site and the members area. The new look of the homepage (on the left) gives a more modern and professional feel than the previous version of the site (right). Other updates include redesigned profiles and searching. You now can now search by keywords or a phrase. This allows you more control over who is returned in search results since you can now search the entire profile, including any text inputted by the JDate member. Search results also have been updated to include a new mini search view which is available while you are viewing a potential matches profile. Enhanced search filtering of results is also available for the quick search tool.

Two other new features include a blog and video show. JBlog is a new web blog for members which JDaters can contribute too, discussing their lives and dates. A certified therapist will also blog her advice, analysis and answer any questions from the community. JDateTV is a weekly produced online video that follows "eight JDaters on their journeys to find their soul mates". The first season is now online in its entirety and available for viewing.

You can find the JBlog here and the new JDateTV here.

For more information on this dating site for Jewish singles, read our JDate.com review.

Researchers at the University of Arkansas took a look at several claims of the more popular online dating sites. Psychology professor Jeffrey Lohr and Aimee King and Deena Austin-Oden (psychology graduates) found that the claims are more self serving than anything else. They wrote an article about this topic called Browsing for Love in All the Wrong Places which can be found in Skeptic magazine, volume 15 number 1. We found a review of this article at PhysOrg.

One example that the researchers used, as pointed out by PhysOrg, which made them skeptical of claims by dating sites is customer satisfaction testimonies. It is assumed by the researches that most dating sites only select satisfied customers reviews to display, rather than an average sample from all testimonies received. This is an obvious point and I am sure most people realize testimonials and reviews on a dating services own website are all preselected. In fact most companies in any industry would operate this way. It is how marketing works.

eHarmony, Perfectmatch.com, Chemistry and Match.com are all talked about in the review of the article at PhysOrg. The one example given about Match.com is their claim that they are responsible for twice as many marriages as any other site in the world. According to the review, Match.com:

The Unofficial eHarmony Blog has dissected a few web pages over at eHarmony and they have figured out, to date that the dating site has had over 28.1 million user registrations (for all countries). By looking at the source of the registration process and in particular the JavaScript, you can find your user ID number. This number is incremented each time a user is registered. So, if you ever want to know exactly how many users have registered, follow these instructions to find your eHarmony User ID.

For more information about this dating site, read our eHarmony.com review.

Army Times took a look at a few online dating sites that cater strictly to singles serving in the Military. Out of the 3 sites mentioned Militarylovelinks.com seems to have the most traffic. It is also the first site I have come across that wanted me to download an ActiveX control called ReputationShield. Reputation Shield I believe is part of a product called Reputation Manager which is designed to prevent online fraud and abusive behavior. The software is created by a company called Iovation, with whom we have talked about before in previous posts. The actual ActiveX control I believe uses fingerprinting technology to uniquely identify a computer by what hardware and software is on it. This way once a spammer is discovered on Militarylovelinks.com, they can block them for good (or at least form using the specific computer again).

Though it says the software is required, you can actually bypass installing the Reputation Shield ActiveX control. Reputation Shield must be a new feature on the dating site as there is no mention anywhere on the site (including the members area) on what it does. They really should add some information because it is actually a major selling point that Military Love Links wants to prevent scammers from joining. As it is right now, with no information present about the control and the reluctance of people to install unknown application on the computer (and rightly so), I bet most people do not install it, thereby making the whole thing pointless. I applaud Militarylovelinks.com taking the initiative in fraud prevention but, implement it completely, not 50 percent.

Minyanville took a look at Spark Networks latest financials (see Story) and decided to do an article on it. Spark Networks as a whole is not doing very well but JDate has been holding its own in the recent downturn of the economy, even with the advertising budget lowered by $150 thousand. JDate is really the only viable online dating solution for someone who wants to date someone within their own Jewish faith. One thing they mentioned which might get JDate members attention is that apparently they may be considering lowering subscription fees which were last raised back in April 2007 (see Story) to bring in more members.

One thing the article talks about, which I disagree with, is that the subscription model for online dating is not viable any more due to free dating sites. While their example of a free site like Plenty Of Fish has seen increase visitors of 69 percent according to Compete.com (not 100% like the article suggests) most other free dating sites have been either losing visitors or just holding their own. With the recession over the 6 month mark, I think a lot of the popular paid dating sites are doing remarkable well by keeping roughly their current visitor levels, while sales in other industries plummet. Subscription based dating is not going anywhere, and these sites have their place in the dating industry, just like the free dating sites.

For the full article, read Minyanville (Note: I experienced problems viewing this page in IE 8). For more on the dating site, read our Jdate.com review.

The news story of a federal suit by a man claiming he was deceived by Match.com (see Story) is now making headlines on TV news shows. Good Morning America did a piece about a man named Barry who is thinking of being part of a proposed class action lawsuit against Match.com. After using Match.com Barry felt "undesirable and rejected" since he received few responses to his winks and emails. The original federal lawsuit filed by Sean McGuinn

... alleges Match.com perpetrates fraud by returning inactive or canceled members in search results of seemingly dateable people.

He believes he was actually sending e-mails to ghosts of Match.com's past.